HyperDimension Neptunia, Volume C ReBirth
by ButterHunter
Summary: 'Normal.' 'Ordinary.' Such simple words. But for one young man, thrust from his old life into this world of video games, anime, and female protagonists galore, 'normal' quickly becomes turned upside-down. The fate of the world hangs in the balance - if only he could even begin to understand just what lurks under the surface...
1. War's Turning Point

**Hello, readers. Welcome to the new chapter 1 of the rewrite to HyperDimension Neptunia!**

 **You guys really did want this, so I have delivered. This story is, as much as I can, be a bit more different. It will, of course, follow the GENERAL idea, but I'll try and do better about creating new events and developing the plot more, stuff like that.**

 **Oh, and of course, I'm not alone! Isn't that right, Neptune?**

 _(Neptune, at your service! Who's ready for some comments from yours truly?!)_

 **So, without further ado… let's return to the world of Neptunia once more! Huzzah!**

* * *

Chapter 1: War's Turning Point

 _Gamindustri…_

 _Here, this ever changing realm is split into four, each protected by a goddess. Each reside in Celestia, a realm far part the Lands that they oversee._

 _CPU Black Heart, and her Land of Black regality- Lastation._

 _CPU White Heart, and her Land of White serenity - Lowee._

 _CPU Green Heart, and her Land of Green pastures - Leanbox._

 _And CPU Purple Heart, and her Land of Purple progress - Planeptune._

 _Here, each of the goddesses fight endlessly, in attempt for total rule over Gamindustri._

 _This battle has continued for time immemorial, etched into history. This…_

 _Is the Console War._

…

* * *

As if Purple Heart needed to be reminded.

As she backed off, she wondered why her mind had wandered towards the Console War's history. Perhaps she had just needed something to occupy her time.

Regardless, she chided herself. Getting distracted would get her nowhere real fast.

Black Heart casually strolled to Purple Heart, her expression haughty and her sword at the ready. "Ha. You should just give up already. I've nearly got you in place."

"Nonsense." Purple Heart fired back, her own sword raised in retaliation. "This fight has lasted for centuries by now. Why quit when I'm so close to winning?"

It was then that White Heart and Black Heart whizzed past, the two of them fighting each other. Green Heart seemed mildly annoyed as she asked, "*sigh* How much longer must I put up with this fight?"

"Can it!" White Heart yelled, swinging her battle axe directly at Green Heart. Even though she came up short, she recovered and kept talking. "If anyone's gonna earn that title of True Goddess, it's me!"

"Oh? And what makes you so sure of that?" Green Heart cat-called, sizing up White Heart in a disapproving way. "I'm fairly sure the people would never look up to someone so… tiny."

"You're one to talk!" White Heart shouted at the top of her voice, her eye growing bloody crimson. "I can't stand the way you act all high-and-mighty, Thunder Tits!"

To be fair, Green Heart was the most… gifted of the four, and it wasn't like her goddess outfit was trying to hide it. Rather than grow annoyed at White Heart's comment, however, she seemed to grow smug. "...you flatter me. Breasts symbolize fertility and maturity… befitting of a goddess. With that logic, I do believe you would be the least… fitting."

That only drove White Heart more into a rage. "GRAAH! All I hear is crap coming out of your rear! Die!"

She charged, but was intercepted by Black Heart, who had charged in and tried to take out Green Heart while the latter was distracted. However, it simply ended up with Black Heart's strike managing to block White Heart.

Even Green Heart looked surprised, seeing the blade that barely blocked the strike come out of nowhere.

"Dammit, that was close!" White Heart cursed under her breath, backing off from Black Heart, who had recovered and was glaring at White Heart with an all-too-smug expression.

"Not the way I planned that, but it should be sufficient. Your mine!" Black Heart yelled, charging forward.

 _(Huh. This DOES feel a little different than the previous iteration.)_

 **(I'm trying, at least.)**

As the two went sword to axe, Green Heart sighed again and asked, "In all seriousness, how much longer must we fight? I've grown tired of this repetitive nonsense."

It was then that a _fifth_ voice spoke.

"Well, then why not get rid of one of you?" the voice asked, making White Heart, Green Heart, and Black Heart stop in place.

"Hmmm… certainly an idea." Green Heart considered.

Purple Heart saw the entire display and grew confused. "What? What are you going on about?"

"Not a bad idea. Having only two others to fight would certainly increase my odds of success…" Black Heart reasoned.

"So, who's the sad one to get rid of of us?" White Heart mused, glaring at each of the goddesses in turn.

The voice spoke again, clear and plainly to everyone but Purple Heart. "I suggest… Purple Heart… Neptune."

The three goddesses considered that, and it seemed like they were coming to an agreement. "It would be, at the very least, difficult to defeat her later, so I agree." Green Heart nodded, looking at the other two.

"What are you three on about?" Purple Heart demanded.

It was then that she noticed each of them ready their weapons, and they were all looking directly at her with their own smirks.

"Well, it would appear that we're all in agreement. So sorry!" Black Heart mockingly apologized.

"What?!" Purple Heart, too late realizing that she should have her weapon ready.

Black Heart charged ahead, followed by Green Heart and White Heart. They each tried to simultaneously land a strike on Purple Heart, but she dashed out of the way just in time.

Realizing the other three were now all against her (in a both figurative and literal sense), she knew that she needed to act fast. So while the other three were recollecting themselves for another pass, she charged forward and slammed into Black Heart, knocking the wind out of her and started slashing. Had Black Heart been any less of a fancy flier, she would've been turned into mince meat.

But by then White Heat was back up, and she quickly flew towards Purple Heart with her axe at the ready.

Purple Heart waited until the very last second, and then slammed her sword downwards just as she leapt to the side. The effect was that the sword collided with White Heart's axe, and caused her to basically sending herself in an unintentional catapult that sent her flying a few feet away, cursing Purple Heart all the way.

Then Black Heart finally recovered, forcing Purple Heart to block her strikes to stay out on top.

But it was clear she was starting to struggle. She was growing tired from the combined attack, and she hadn't even fully knocked any of them out of the running yet.

She met Black Heart in a sword lock, each of them glaring at the other.

And that's when Purple Heart just remembered about Green Heart, who had waited until the perfect moment to come flying in out of nowhere, using her massive spear to knock Purple Heart's sword clean out of her hands.

Purple Heart, knowing that she wouldn't stand a chance without her weapon, tried to jump up into the air and grab it, but a swift strike from Green Heart sent the weapon off over the edge of Celestia.

"N-no!" Purple Heart gasped, turning just in time to see Green Heart smirk at her.

Black Heart was flying at a now defenseless Purple Heart, charging up one final strike to finish the job once and for all. "This ends now! Begone!" she yelled.

All Purple Heart could do was frantically brace herself as Black Heart laid her final attack.

The resulting explosion was too much for Purple Heart to block by herself, and she fell off of Celestia. She was knocked out cold.

As she unconsciously fell, her form shined, and she transformed from her goddess form into a human form, still knocked completely unconscious.

And that's when the War began to shift.

 _(Heck yeah it did.)_

* * *

 _Meanwhile, in another universe..._

* * *

A young man woke up from his dreams.

This time was the most cryptic one yet. He imagined three forces of incredible strength had just teamed up against him and knocked him completely out, leaving him falling off of the edge of what looked like a floating island into the void waiting below.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he'd been having a similar dream all week: figures fighting each other, himself included, locked into a never-ending struggle.

But… this time, it felt like his part was over. The figures had already knocked him off and away.

But… why was there another figure next to him?

It feels as though he was falling with someone, like the powerful entities had knocked him and the other figure off and over.

And unless he was mistaken, the figure that was next to him had appeared like it was a girl with purple hair, knocked unconscious.

 _(*cough* Totally not me. *cough*)_

He sighed, sitting up from his bed. He popped his back, thinking that he really needed to get a comfier place soon.

And that's when the headache started.

"GAH!" the young man cried out in pain, as his head burst into EXTREMELY sharp pain, like someone was nailing into his skull with a mallet and a railroad spike.

He staggered to his feet, holding his head the entire way.

 _Now… shall I start out our day today?_

"N-no… I just woke up. You can stay away…" the man grumbled to himself, rubbing his temples.

 _But I want to come out. You've been letting me play less and less lately…_

"Because each of your 'play' sessions have gotten us into more trouble than good. Now hush… I need to calm myself…" the man whispered aloud, staggering out of his home.

The headache slowly diminished as he walked throughout the city, though it was quite a struggle. Especially since he also had to focus on keeping his hood up so that no one saw his face.

It wasn't like he DIDN'T want them to see him, but… there was a time and place for everything.

He shouldered his backpack, which carried all of his essentials: his phone, his laptop, some cash, toiletries, meds, some thick books, the works. He never let the pack out of his sight: that kind of equipment was his most important tool. Losing it would mean losing everything he'd worked up to this point for.

He shouldered the pack once more, just for good measure, and continued to nurse his headache while trying to reach the place.

Eventually he found it: an old cafe he frequently made stops to.

"'Ey, C-Man." the barista on duty called out as the man opened the door. "How's it goin'?"

"Not so good… 'they' tried to come out just as I woke up this morning…" the man murmured.

"Really? Well, here. Have one on me today." the barista offered, whiping up the man's favorite - a regular drink with milk and sugar, but instead of coffee beans he instead brewed a little bit of chocolate. The resulting drink was deep, sweet, and warm.

"Always the best." the man replied, after taking a deep swig. "Maybe I'll swing by later today… assuming I'm still fine by then."

"Please, don't hesitate. And try to keep them in line for me? Hate to lose your business." the barista asked politely.

The man snorted under his breath. Nine out of ten times, all of the drinks he got were paid for by that particular barista. If he was still what that location called 'business,' it was a wonder that they were even open.

Anyway, once the man wandered around sipping his drink, he wondered what he should do today.

For some reason… he kept having a strange feeling in the back of his head. Like… he wouldn't see this place again for a long, long time.

He shook that thought away. Surely he was just still a little dizzy from his little 'exchange' this morning.

 _Why do you keep me locked away, hm? You know that I make us far stronger._

"Grr… you know that your version of 'stronger' and mine are two VERY different things." the man murmured under his breath.

 _Are they really? Ooh, do tell then. What would I need to do for you to let me loose?_

'Maybe not be so damn phycotic.' the man thought in his mind.

 _I heard that! Rude boy!_

"It's true and you know it." the man replied quietly, moving past a large crowd of people. Stares followed him as he continued to argue with his 'friend.'

 _Aww, but you know that I truly do care about you, right? I just have a… different way of expressing it._

"'Different' is putting it mildly. You've nearly gotten me INTO just as much trouble as you've got me out of." the man murmured, sitting down on a park bench. An old man sitting there took one look of the newcomer and then stood up, rather promptly, and then walked away.

"*sigh*... I just… I wish that I could go back." the man murmured.

 _Back to what? To the good old days when I was your best friend?_

"No… to before I even GOT you. Before any of this all happened." the man sighed, looking down at the ground. "Before… they took them away."

Memories flashed in the man's head, one after another. Each one filled him with the same kind of regret, the same kind of sorrow.

"Anyway… guess I should get researching again." the man sighed, pulling out his laptop from his bag.

And that's when he felt something was wrong.

The hairs on his arms started standing up straight.

He looked all over. No one in sight.

That was more than suspicious. At this hour, the park was still full of people walking around. NEVER was it empty like this.

And… why did it sound like something was approaching from behind him?

He turned around and nearly choked.

A police helicopter was flying above the skyscrapers, closing in on the park. There was little doubt in the man's mind who it was for: him.

He threw his laptop into the backpack and jumped into the bushes, quickly becoming hard to see.

The heli was now right above the park, and it appeared as though they were looking around.

Then footsteps started pounding the paved roads all over. It sounded like half the police force was here right now.

The man knew that he was a wanted man (he could thank his 'friend' for that much), but it was never THIS bad. He was under the impression that as long as he didn't show his face too much and never gave his full name, he wouldn't be caught.

But now, he needed to leave. NOW.

Quietly, he crawled around the bushes, taking care to hide when the chopper or a cop drew close. It was a slow process, as he could barely move five feet without seeing another cop. Once or twice he almost got himself caught.

But eventually, after what must've been at LEAST an hour, he made it to the very edge of the park. All he needed was to make a break for the alleys once the chopper wasn't looking at him and he'd be home free.

But life couldn't be that simple, no.

Because as soon as the chopper flew to the other side of the park, he looked out of the hedge line both ways, then murmured, "Now or never!"

He charged full speed, but just as he was about to hit the other side of the road-

" _FREEZE!"_ a loud voice blared over loud-speaker. A bright searchlight instantly trained over him, making him stand like a deer in headlights.

Cops flooded out of the park, each of them with tasers and pistols at the ready. The man was taken back by these cops organization. How the hell had they managed to catch him…?

And then that's when he looked up at the chopper.

" _Well well well. Look who we have here."_ the voice called out.

A voice the man knew all too well.

He didn't even need to look up all the way to see his face. All he needed to see was that purple suit and tie. " _You've had a good run, kid. But I've got you now. Come with us quietly, it'll make this process SO much easier for you and me."_

The surrounded man grew arrogant. "You son of a-"

That was all he managed to get out before a stray taser shot blasted him right in the stomach. He fell to the ground, the electric pain scrambling his thoughts.

'N-no… not like this…' the man murmured in his mind, unable to react to the situation.

 _I do believe NOW you need my help, then?_

The man lay there, tased and disoriented, as the cops were starting to move in closer.

"..." he stayed quiet for a moment, then…

…

"Let's play."

 _Good choice._

And then, all feeling faded.

He felt no pain. He felt no weakness.

He didn't… feel. All that he knew…

Was that it was time to have some fun.

He stood back up, much to the cops dismay. They instantly noticed how his face was now contorted into a twisted smile, barely human.

The same cop bravely aimed another shot of his taser at the man, and fired.

But now, the shot… did nothing.

" _Awww, how cute."_ the man, his voice now twisted and distorted. " _The brave cop thinks that'll work a second time."_

And then all hell broke loose.

The man now held an old, dull knife blade, and it was clear that he knew how to use it.

Guns fired. Tasers zapped. If anything hit the man, it was clear he no longer felt it.

Laughing like a madman, he slashed his way throughout the horde of cops. Not killing them, no. The man still had enough restraint for that.

But he was still willing to leave many officers with nasty wounds that forced them to fall back - or simply fall over. Either or worked out just fine for him.

He kept forcing his way forward, but just as he reached the edge of the police line-

 _*BANG BANG*_

Two impacts, like fast balls, drilled right into the man's back. Against all known odds, he FELT those.

They hurt like HELL.

He felt his power subsiding, and the pain grew only larger with each passing second. He felt around to his back.

Blood was oozing out of a wound in his upper back, right behind his chest region. His backpack had managed to soften most of the blow. Perhaps the books were destroyed, possibly the laptop too. But he still probably now had a bullet clinking around his body, and there was an awfully large amount of blood coming out.

He managed to turn around. The purple suit…

He had a sniper rifle in his hands, and it was aimed right at the man.

Had… he taken the shot? Likely so…

But as the man's body started going into shut-down mode, he realized what was going to happen.

Everything that he had worked up to this point for was for naught.

Even if he was tried he would be lucky to get a life sentence.

'N-no… this can't be the end…' he pleaded. 'I… I just want another chance…'

He collapsed to his side, his body numbing. 'Just… one more… chance…' he pleaded in his mind.

He had flashing images come to his mind. The girl from his dreams falling again, the chopper with the purple suit man, a shine coming from his backpack…

…

Then...

Came the falling...

...

* * *

 **Well. How's that for a night and day comparison?**

 _(What did I just read?)_

 **That, dear Neptune, was the newly revamped version of the few brief moments I give snippets of our dear OC's past. Much more intuitive than the LAST version, no?**

 _(Yeah, last version you simply said 'you fell into a hole'. LAME!)_

 **Exactly why I wanted to go big this time. I noticed that you didn't comment much this time around, though. Was it just because you wanted to read?**

 _(Pretty much. I'd rather not interrupt stuff like that, especially seeing as it's new info. Time for the questions to come in full force.)_

 **Oh, but all will be revealed in time, Neptune… in time.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this new, remade Chapter 1! Time to resume the slow climb back up to where we were, but I do feel as though I will be more into the story now that I've got a fresh pallet.**

 **As always, if you guys have questions for me or Neptune, lemme know with a PM. Always happy to answer!**

 _(And, until next time dear readers…!)_

 **Stay awesome! =D**

 _(Oooh, that outro IS kinda fun to say!)_


	2. A Second Chance

**Hello! ButterHunter here, with another chapter!**

 **Shall we continue?**

* * *

Chapter 2: A Second Chance

* * *

 _In the HDN universe..._

* * *

Late in the middle of night, when most of the common folk were fast asleep, one girl stayed up late. She stood on her balcony, looking across the beautiful night sky.

Suddenly, she noticed something odd. Two indistinct objects were streaking across the sky, like shooting stars.

But shooting stars never looked that close before. And as she stared at the figures streaking across the sky, they started looking less and less like shooting stars.

The figures soon landed nearby, in a large forest. The silence of night suddenly was interrupted by a large *BOOM* sound as both figures crashed.

The girl kept her eyes trained on the scene. She tilted her head and asked herself, "What was that?"

She quickly dashed off towards the forest, following her gut instinct more than anything.

As she entered, she noticed that monsters weren't around. Maybe they had been scared off by the crash, or perhaps they had simply gone to bed for the night.

Regardless, she kept her guard up while wandering in further.

She parted a few branches in her way, and then gasped.

"It… it's _people_!" she breathed, and she quickly ran to their aid.

* * *

As if the day hadn't already been strange enough. First, the girl had been having strange dreams, then she'd been feeling like she was beaten up by a truck, and NOW when she woke up, she was in a dark space with no idea where she was at all.

"Erm… hello?" she called out blindly.

Nothing. If anyone heard her at all, they made no sound otherwise.

"This place is really creepy… where even am I?" the girl asked, glancing around.

"It so dark here… ohhhh, did I get caught in a short circuit again?" she asked herself, looking around harder.

The area around her SEEMED to be an… area of some kind, though what kind of area was far beyond even her. "Erm, hello?! Anybody? I'd really hate to accidentally step on some fingers right now!"

Silence. Complete, utter silence.

The girl, though weirded out quite much, started walking around. "Seriously though… where even-"

And then she stepped on something soft and warm, which made a loud, sickening _*squisssh*_ sound. "EWWWW! What did I just step in?!"

 _(I still have no idea what I stepped in to this day.)_

After scraping her shoe off on the ground, and giving up on trying to figure out what the strange substance had been, she wandered off. "Man… I'm bored."

She continued walking further along, wondering what exactly she was waiting for.

But just like she had woken up, and found herself in this strange land…

Another figure was stirring, roused from a deep sleep.

It was a man. He slowly opened his eyes and rolled over onto his back, blinking.

"The… hell did I do last night…?" he asked himself.

He looked around. He didn't recognize the scenery one bit.

And then something very peculiar happened.

He tried to remember what he had been doing before this…

But somehow, he couldn't remember. Like… nothing.

Confused and concerned, he sat up, thinking hard.

Nope. No memories came back. He had no recollection of… well, anything.

Except for a bunch of video game references, he couldn't remember anything about himself at all.

 _(Seems like he didn't lose the anything vitally important, then.)_

All he could remember for sure was that he DEFINITELY didn't pass out in a black limbo-stance.

He almost started panicking - because let's face it, that's a pretty good reason to panic - before calming himself. "O-okay… okay. So my memory is gone. That's not good. But… maybe it'll come back…!"

And then he added in, "...right?"

He looked around, trying to get any bearings he could.

"Huh… nothing but inky blackness…" he murmured.

He stood onto his feet, shouldered the backpack he was carrying, and started slowly wandering forward, unsure of what else could be done.

As he walked, he kept thinking he heard noises and such. Like… another person was walking too.

He was confused at this, and kept looking around every directly he could…

Until suddenly, he heard something. A voice.

It sounded like a young girl, and it appeared like she was growing closer.

"Hey! Anyone there?" the man yelled out.

The voice paused for a moment, before shouting back, "Hello?"

Now having a destination in mind, the man started dashing around the area, occasionally calling out to determine his next direction…

"Where are you?!" he yelled out once more.

"Right back at ya!" the girl yelled back, now sounding almost on top of him.

He turned to the left slightly and started dashing forward, but just as he reached a corner…

He suddenly slammed into the owner of the voice at full speed.

It was total confusion for a moment while the pair fell to the ground, completely losing sense of which way was up for a moment until they settled.

Groaning a bit, the man looked up.

The voice he had been chasing after belonged, like he thought, to what appeared like a young girl. She had fair skin and appeared on the small side. She appeared to very much enjoy the color purple, given that her clothes, hair, and even her eyes were all a light purple color. Her large, almost baggy jacket almost completely covered her mini-skirt. Her legs, from the knees down, were covered in long stockings that were white with baby blue stripes, that went down into her rather oversized tennis shoes. In her previously mentioned spiky hair, she wore hair-clips shaped like the directional pads on video game controllers.

 _(Yeah, that description is good.)_

She too was recovering and taking her first look at the man that just plowed into her like a runaway train. He was tall, almost scarily so, and his body looked slightly muscled, though still a bit plump. His ruffled brown hair matched the color of his brown eyes, just behind a pair of silver-framed glasses. He wore a simple shirt with a design from some video game or another, ordinary blue jeans, and a large pair of black tennis shoes.

For a moment, the pair only sized each other up, not saying anything for the time being.

Finally, the man figured he should apologize and hastily spoke up, "E-erm… sorry about, ah… running you over."

The girl blinked at him, intrigued. "Who… who are you?"

"I'm… I'm…" the man started to respond, before stopping. He blinked rapidly, feeling confusion start to bubble up in his chest. "I… I can't remember…"

The girl's eyes widened. "Wait, you forgot your memory too?" she asked.

"I-I know I should know it, but I can't-" the man started to say, before stopping. "Hang on, what? You lost your memory?"

"Oooh! This is so exciting! We both lost our memories, like we're main characters!" the girl excitedly stated, jumping up to her feet. "Fear not, guy-to-be-named-later! We shall embark together on our journey to forgotten lands in search of the lost memories of our past!"

The silence that followed was so thick you could cut through it. The man stared at the girl, understandably lost at her line of thinking. "Should… should I be worried? I mean, like, are you alright?"

"Never better, dear friendo! Now come along! We have a mystery to solve! Away!" she giggled, skipping off towards who knows where.

As much as the man would've liked to sit and stare, he knew that sitting down wasn't going to get him anywhere. Besides, as strange as the girl was, she appeared friendly. That had to count for something.

 _(It does! At least in my case.)_

So he stood back up and jogged after, keeping pace with the girl as best he could.

She eventually noticed him behind her, and slowed down to a reasonable walk so that he could keep up. "But really - you don't remember your name?"

The man shook his head, thinking hard. "It's on the tip of my tongue, hang on… Cole? No… Carter? Sounds closer… maybe Corey? I don't-"

"Cameron, perhaps?" the girl offered.

The instant she said that, the name clicked in his head. "Y-yeah… yeah, that's it! Cameron! How'd you know?"

"I looked in this thing." the girl responded, holding out a black leather wallet. "Had your name written in bold letters right up front."

The man, Cameron, felt his back pocket. "How'd you- give that back!"

He swiped the wallet out of the girl's hands, shoving back into his pocket. "Rifling through another person's wallet - who does that?"

"Thieves, people who like to snoop, warriors in need of cash…" the girl started firing off.

 _(He DID ask.)_

"Oh quiet. Besides, you never told me YOUR name yet." Cameron responded.

"Well that's because the great and mighty Neptune hasn't REMEMBERED her name yet, huh? Think about that smart guy?" the girl asked, glaring at the taller man.

Cameron blinked. For a moment, the girl waited for a response.

Until she realized what she just said. "Oh. Erm… well, I think I remembered now."

"Neptune…" Cameron murmured aloud. "Haven't heard THAT one before."

"Oooh, so I'm original?" the girl, Neptune, asked, stars in her eyes.

"C-can we please go back to the topic at hand?" Cameron asked, not wanting to get even further derailed. "We have no idea where we are, or how we even got here in the first place. That is a MUCH more pressing issue than names."

"I mean, I guess it is. Sure makes the author's life easier though." Neptune commented to herself.

Cameron didn't even skip a beat at the mention of the author. "So? Who cares if it makes his life easier, I'm more concerned about what our missing memories means."

 _(...huh. Honestly figured that Cameron would have a bit more, what's the word… confusion about the fourth wall. Glad to see I was wrong!)_

The pair stayed in silence for a moment, before Neptune sighed. "Ugh… who's prompt are we waiting for? Seriously, SOMETHING should've triggered by now, right?"

And that's when another voice finally spoke up.

" _Apologies. I was trying to summon my energy as fast as I could, but it was difficult."_ the voice responded. " _Have you been here long?"_

Cameron whipped around the area, as did Neptune, as they tried to find the speaker. "Who was that?" the tall man called out.

" _I would not waste time looking around. I am not… there, per say."_ the voice responded. Cameron couldn't ever remember hearing a voice like that in his life. Though to be fair, he couldn't really remember much of that life right now.

"A voice I can't see…" Neptune murmured. "N-no! That can only mean one thing! I'm dead! I'm dead and I'm in the afterlife!"

Cameron stared at Neptune. "Uh, Neptune, I highly doubt-"

"I KNEW I should've erased my backlog and wiped everything off my HDD!" Neptune moaned, looking like the end of the world was coming.

Cameron and the voice both were perplexed by Neptune's outburst. It was a good minute before the voice spoke again. " _Well then… just to put that to rest, no Neptune. You have not-"_

"You both don't understand!" Neptune continued to blubber. "I can't just calm down after this! Someone can go into my files and look at my 'special' HDD collections!"

Cameron blinked three times before returning attention back to the voice. "Erm… anyway… so, then… who are you voice in our heads?"

" _My name is Histoire. I am, what you would call, a tome."_ the voice, now named Histoire, explained, seemingly grateful that Cameron was at least trying to hear her out.

But of course, Neptune wouldn't be left out just yet. "T-TOMB?! Like a grave?! I knew it! We're both dead!" she moaned.

Cameron sighed irritatedly. "Neptune, lemme see your arm really quick."

Neptune paused her monologue briefly to curiously hold out her arm. Cameron responded by quickly pinching her arm between her elbow and shoulder.

"OW!" she shouted loudly, pulling away. "What the-?"

 _(That actually hurt, just so you know…)_

"There. You felt pain, so you're not dead." Cameron explained. "Now, Miss Histoire? Where were you?"

" _As I was saying, I am a tome. Neptune, you have fallen from Celestia, and now I need your assistance."_ Histoire explained.

Neptune finally seemed like she had calmed down and accepted that she was not dead. "Okay… so I'm NOT dead. That's a relief… so, Miss Heavenly Voice, how exactly do you need my help? Oooh, you wouldn't happen to be my fan, would you?"

Another pause followed. Cameron finally couldn't take it anymore and facepalmed.

" _I record the history of all of Gamindustri with the goddesses."_ Histoire explained further, at this point just completely ignoring Neptune.

Neptune looked honestly a tad annoyed at the snubbing. "Sure, don't respond then… don't need to worry about _my_ feelings, after all…"

 _(I am a delicate flower! My feelings matter too!)_

 **(*sigh*... I'm starting to regret letting you comment on this new version…)**

Cameron gently flicked her nose. "Be quiet and listen already. Histoire, I apologize."

" _Thank you, Mister… Cameron, you said? I was getting rather tired of pointing everything out to her."_ Histoire sighed.

"Oh great! So now others are tired of me! Just what I want!" Neptune sarcastically responded.

" _I do not have much time, so I will get to the point."_ Histoire quickly started to explain. " _Neptune, please l… you… ers…"_

For some reason, Cameron was starting to hear Histoire less and less, as some kind of noise was starting to block her out. "Wait… what?" he half-yelled, trying his best to hear.

Neptune was having the same problem. "Huh?! What was that? There's to much chatter on my end!"

" _Please stop… foire… end to… sole War…"_ Histoire's managed, her voice now barely understandable over the noise.

Slowly, Histoire's voice continued to fade, and then it simply disappeared altogether. The noise, however, was still growing louder and louder. Cameron kept turning around over and over, trying to stop the noise…

"Enough with the noise…!" he tried to shout over it, covering his ears. It kept ringing…

Wait… ringing? Was it… an alarm?

"SHUUUUT UP!" Neptune's shrill voice cut through the air.

There was an audible punch, and then the noise finally stopped. And then followed the sound of something smashing into the ground.

"Oops. Might've overdone that one…" she mumbled.

It was then that Cameron realized he wasn't in the same blank area anymore. His eyes were simply closed, and he was on his back lying on a bed or cot of some kind.

He opened his eyes to find himself… in a room. A room with cream colored walls, and several windows with frilly pink curtains. Shelves dotted the room, with books, picture frames, and even one or two plushies. Hanging on the wall was two hangers, one with a woolen, sleeveless sweater, and another that vaguely made him think of a nurse outfit. Leaning in the corner of the room was a massive, almost cartoonishly so, syringe filled with some kind of purple substance.

Cameron was off to the side, lying on a cot near a small coffee table and a cushy pink couch. Neptune herself was on said couch, tucked in with a small blanket, and was also looking around the room. "Wait… where even am I?" the purple haired girl asked aloud.

That's when the pair locked eyes. They both were hit with sudden realization: they had both seen each other in their dreams. Or maybe they had shared a dream, somehow?

 _(I like to think that we simply were so awesome we just transcended time and space for a moment, and met each other in a distant plane of reality. But who really knows?)_

Before either of them could say so much as a word to the other, however, a third figure stepped in from behind a corner. Another girl, wearing a very similar wool sweater like the one on the wall, with creamy pink hair, long and loopy. A cute, if not a tad short, red flannel skirt was placed just below a rather oversized black belt with a big C badge-type accessory attached. Black leggings with a frilly pink top was paired with white boots, with little poms attached to the laces.

But perhaps the most noticeable part of her, at least in Cameron's mind, was her bust. For a girl that didn't look very old, she was quite well-endowed, and if Cameron had any less control of himself, he would've stared at them for hours on end.

 _(Introducing: the perverted side of Cameron!)_

 **(Oh, yeah, like it's just SUPER EASY for a man to NOT stare.)**

 _(How would_ I _know?)_

"Oh! You're both up!" the girl happily noticed, approaching. "Morning, sleepyheads."

Cameron was the first to speak up. "Ummm… good… morning?"

"Well, actually, more like good afternoon!" the girl cheerily corrected.

"Erm… where exactly _is_ here? Is this your room?" Neptune asked. "And… why was I so snuggly tucked in?" she added, kicking at the blanket still around her feet. Indeed, it looked like the blanket had been tucked VERY tightly into the couch itself.

"And… who exactly are you?" Cameron asked.

The girl closed her eyes thoughtfully. "Oh, it was just last night! I saw a shooting star, and it headed right into the forest! That was both of you."

It took a good five seconds of silence to realize that this girl had finished her thought. Neptune offered a chuckle and replied, "That was a rather short answer…"

"Erm… think your missing the bigger picture here." Cameron quickly interjected, turning back towards the third girl. "You said… we fell out of the sky?"

"Yes!" the girl agreed, then added with a giggle, "She was actually stuck into the ground like Soul-Sword, you know."

"Not really. Kinda was unconscious." Cameron dryly remarked.

"Soul-Sword?" Neptune asked. "Pretty sure you got that confused with Soul-E***... or, wait… wasn't it the Excalibur that was stuck in the ground?"

The third girl thought about for a few seconds, then nodded. "Oh, right. I don't know why I always get the two confused. But anyway, you both were knocked out cold. I tried to wake you up, but that didn't happen, so I simply brought you back here."

"Wow, by yourself?" Cameron asked, rather impressed. He was a pretty big guy, and this young woman managed to not only carry him but a second girl on top of that.

 _(I mean, yeah. That IS actually kinda impressive.)_

"Yep! I had to keep taking breaks every thirty seconds to catch my breath, but it was worth it!" the girl responded cheerfully. "Moving bodies is part of my training, after all. I'm a nurse."

Cameron had to think about that. 'I… guess that WOULD be training… in a rather morbid kind of way.'

"Actually, where are my manners? I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Compa." the nurse responded.

"Very nice to meet you, Compa! I'm Neptune!" Neptune also introduced.

"Cameron." Cameron nodded.

"It's very nice to properly meet you, Cameron and Ne… Nept… Neop…" Compa murmured, for some reason struggling to get Neptune's name properly.

"Eh, Neptuna, Nep-Nep, Nepper, all the same to me. Call me whatever you want!" Neptune happily replied, seeing the poor girl struggle. ('Nepper?' Cameron couldn't help but question.)

"Okay then, I like Nep-Nep!" Compa happily agreed. "It's nice to finally speak to you, Nep-Nep."

It was then that Compa must've looked at Neptune's body. Her purple jacket was open a fair bit, and although most of her body was covered by a small purple dress, what was being shown was covered in several cuts and bruises. "Oh dear, you still look a bit bruised. Here, let me take a look at those…"

Neptune also seemed to suddenly be aware of her physical condition. She checked herself over too, seeing the darkened parts of her skin and cuts accompanying them. "Woah… I did get a bit banged up, didn't I?" the purple-haired girl asked. "Kinda feels like I got smacked around like a sandbag."

Cameron, seeing this, checked over his own body. Apart from a small scar on his right wrist, there didn't seem to be much wrong with him. It DID feel as though he was on the tail-end of recovering from running head-first into a tree, though.

"Okay… let's see here…" Compa slowly murmured. She suddenly remembered that Cameron was still there, checking over himself. "Ah, Mister Cameron? Could you please turn around a little? I have to, um… do some private things on Nep-Nep."

 _(WOW, that could've been taken WAY out of context very easily.)_

Cameron hesitated for a moment, before understanding. "O-oh, right. My mistake." he apologized, quickly turning around.

There was a sound of clothes shuffling around, like Neptune was taking off her jacket and stuff. "So… why am I taking these off again?"

"Because, silly. We can't apply bandages to cuts that are covered with clothes." Compa explained.

"But why do _I_ have to be the only one who goes nude?!" Neptune replied indignantly. "Why doesn't Cameron over there have to undress?"

Cameron was about to make a really bad joke here, but thankfully Compa swooped in by saying, "I already looked Mr. Cameron over. He was in much better shape. Besides, you were speared into the ground, so that can hardly be good for you."

"Well, yes, I understand that, but-" Neptune started to interject.

"Here we go…" Compa murmured quietly, the sound of a tape-like substance being stretched apart gently. "Loop it this way, around the bend, over this way…"

Neptune started making very small gasping sounds, like she was being violently squeezed. Cameron was starting to wonder what the hell was happening.

 _(What, should I have made a sound like a teddy bear getting squeezed?)_

 **(That actually would've been funnier, to be honest.)**

'Is everything alright back ther-' he started to asked in his mind, glancing over his shoulder.

When he saw the scene before him, his brain seemed to be refusing to understand what the eyes were seeing. Compa was on top of Neptune, fumbling with a literal tangle of some kind of medical gauze/tape bandage. Neptune herself looked almost in pain, gasping in pain every so often. Compa was wrapping just about EVERY INCH of Neptune she could find a cut or bruise, and it was clear that she was wrapping it rather tightly.

Thankfully, Cameron wasn't seeing anything TOO naughty, as Compa had already covered Neptune's chest and around her lower region, but that didn't make the situation much easier to process.

"A-Ack! C-Compa, I-I… I think these are too tight…!" Neptune breathed.

"They have to be tight, otherwise they'll keep hurting!" Compa responded, grunting. "Just be patient now…!"

"I… I can't breathe…!" Neptune gasped, indeed sounding like she was struggling to breath. Suddenly, with an even louder gasp, Neptune suddenly grew slack, as though she had passed out.

"Nep-Nep? Are you alright?! Please come back!" Compa shouted, gently shaking the small girl. "Nep-Nep? NEP-NEP!"

'What the actual hell?' Cameron thought, turning back around very quickly. 'What did I just witness…?'

 **(Fanservice.)**

 _(Fanservice.)_

Thankfully, Compa was quick to react. In moments, she had loosened the bandages and safely woke up Neptune.

Neptune looked like she had come back from the brink of death - and considering the circumstances it probably wasn't far off. "Th-that was… awful. T-the coldness… almost stole me… I could see the light…"

Compa was still all smiles. "Aw, you're over-exaggerating. I only made the bandages a _wee_ bit tight."

Cameron slowly piped up. "Not to interrupt here, but is it safe to look back now?"

"Oh, Mister Cameron, sorry! I almost forgot you were there." Compa apologized, turning towards the large man. "Yes, Nep-Nep is dressed now."

Cameron turned back towards the group and stood up, stretching. "Well… so whatever THAT was happened… so now what do we do?"

"Well… ahhm…" Compa slowly hummed, looking curious. "If I can ask… why did I find you and Nep-Nep stuck in the ground in the first place…?"

"Beats me." Cameron responded.

"I have no idea. My memory's drawing up a blank." Neptune responded.

"Wait… so you can't remember anything?" Compa asked, her eyes widening.

"Nope." Neptune and Cameron both replied at the same time.

Compa looked even more surprised, before clapping her hands together. "Oh! I know! I read about this once in my medical book! You both must be suffering from amnesia!"

Cameron tried again to remember ANYTHING at all. But nothing came back to him. Nothing other than random video game references. Nothing more.

"Huh." Neptune sighed. For having just been told she had no access to her previous memories, she looked remarkably calm.

"I really want to help you, but… I don't think I have anything to treat amnesia…" Compa muttered, small tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes.

Cameron immediately found himself trying to console the girl. "Oh, Compa… don't be upset…" the tall man cooed.

"Yeah, Cameron's right!" Neptune chirped. "You don't need to beat yourself up about it."

Compa looked a tad better, but she still seemed upset.

At the perfect moment, Neptune's stomach suddenly rumbled. "O-oh, you know… I'm actually kinda hungry right now. Do you have any food?"

Compa seemed a bit more at ease. Food was something she COULD do. "Oh, let me look…"

She ducked around the corner. Cameron glanced back to see that Compa actually had a small kitchenette with the same kind of style as the rest of her room.

Compa checked her fridge, and came back with a curious smile. "Well… I don't have much right now, but, how about some pudding?"

"Ooooh!" Cameron approved, clapping his hands together. "You wouldn't happen to have a chocolate one in there, would you?"

So that was one thing Cameron could remember. He liked chocolate. Food is always a good thing to remember.

Neptune tilted her head, confused. "Um… what's a 'pudding?'" she asked.

 _(Had I said that today, with full knowledge of what I was saying… there might as well have been a record scratch._

Both Cameron and Compa turned towards Neptune as though she was crazy. "No… Nep-Nep has never had pudding before…?" Compa breathed, almost in disbelief.

"That… that's a no. Never heard of it before. Is it good?" Neptune asked.

Cameron turned on his heel towards Compa. "Compa, get this girl a cup of pudding STAT!"

Compa didn't need telling twice. She quickly prepared two bowls of pudding - a chocolate one for Cameron, and a nice banana one for Neptune.

Soon enough, Cameron was already digging into his, and Neptune had her own bowl in her hands and was carefully stirring the foodstuff with a spoon. "So, this is 'pudding?'" she asked, giggling at how jiggly it was when she poked it.

Compa started looking very concerned. "Did… did Nep-Nep lose all memory of food too?!"

Neptune shook her head. "I remember 'cake' and stuff… I guess I really don't know what this is."

She looked over at Cameron, who was still going to town on his own. He must've been pretty hungry too.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Neptune shrugged, and raised the spoonful to her mouth and taking a large bite.

And that was the trigger.

 _(=D)_

 **(Did… did you really just make one of your comments a simple emoticon?)**

 _(Yep.)_

Neptune's eyes widened, as though she just got a sense of double vertigo. She was in a state of apparent shock as the flavor hit her like a thousand trucks.

All of that happened in milliseconds. "T-the tantalizing sweetness just melts away on my tongue…! Th-this is amazing!" Neptune breathed, her voice softer than velvet.

And then she started digging in.

Somehow, even though Cameron had already been almost halfway done when Neptune took her first bite, she still managed to finish first while he had a third of the bowl still to go. She looked like she was in total ecstasy. "Compa! THAT. WAS. AMAZING."

"Was it really that good?" Compa asked, her expression growing happier.

"Absolutely! I had to be made by the finest chef in the world!" Neptune reasoned, still staring into her bowl with love.

"Well, actually, I just made it myself…" Compa admitted, shyly rubbing the back of her neck while still smiling.

"Amazing… Compa, you are a genius!" Neptune praised, looking up at Compa like she was some kind of god.

"Oh, stop teasing me Nep-Nep! Wait right there, I'll go get more." the nurse responded, returning to the kitchen.

A good twenty minutes passed. Neptune was eating pudding after pudding almost faster than Compa could bring them out. It almost looked like Neptune was inhaling them rather than eating.

 _(I think I actually was at one point… probably not good for my health, but I don't care.)_

By the time Cameron had only finished his second bowl, Neptune had easily finished her EIGHTH. "That was SO good, Compa… thank you!" the purple-haired girl thanked. Cameron also thanked Compa as well, saying it was lovely.

"I'm glad you both liked it." Compa gushed with a smile. Her expression, however, soon turned to thoughtfulness. "By the way… what are you guys going to do now?"

Cameron thought about that. "I… honestly don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead yet…"

Neptune, however, offered an idea. "Well, I want to see if I can find out what exactly happened. So I want to go where we were found."

She turned to Cameron. "You wanna come with?"

Cameron nodded. "Totally. I can't think of a better plan, anyway."

Compa clapped her hands together. "Ooh! I can take you both there, if you want." she offered, eager.

The other two thought that was a good idea. Five minutes, everyone was up and ready to head out. Cameron shouldered his backpack and sighed in preparation.

'Here we go…' Cameron thought quietly, as the whole group slowly left the fluffy house…

And the adventure truly started…

* * *

 _A few minutes later..._

* * *

The trio soon found themselves in a large city, with Compa taking a lead to guide Neptune and Cameron. The pair was looking around the area with a sort of wide-eyed splendor.

"Holy wow. This place is massive!" Cameron quietly exclaimed, looking around at all of the tall buildings. Even without his memories, he felt as though he'd never seen a city this big or impressive before.

"What is this place called again, Compa?" Neptune asked.

"This is Planeptune, the city that Lady Purple Heart resides over." Compa explained. Neptune seemed to think about that a bit.

"Planeptune, huh? That sounds really familiar." she mused, thoughtful.

Compa appeared to agree. "It sounds awfully like your name, Nep-Nep. Perhaps you were born here!"

Cameron looked around. "We should get moving, who knows what we'll find at… at…" he paused. "Compa, where are we going again?"

"It's just outside the city. There's a park nearby that I found you both in." she explained politely.

Neptune breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't like to carry-"

Then she stopped. The group was right outside of what appeared like some kind of apartment home. "Hmm? What's this…?"

She was staring at the trash cans just to the side of the building, and something about them… Cameron also saw it. It looked odd.

 _(It's the protagonist sense. We can see important things that no other can see! That's why even ordinary trash cans can be suspicious to us!)_

The pair of them moved to the trash cans and started sifting through them, looking for something that felt… odd.

"Umm… why is Nep-Nep and Cameron rifling through someone else's trash?" Compa asked quietly, clearly confused.

Then, the pair found something rather interesting. "Ooh, Compa look! Swords!" Neptune exclaimed, fishing out a rather well-preserved sword. Made of wood.

Cameron, too, found one that was slightly longer than Neptune's, though only slightly. "Why would someone throw away a sword? I mean, yeah, it's made of wood, but still…?"

Compa shrugged, and looked at Cameron's sword closely. "What do you plan on doing with these?"

Neptune hesitated, then quietly suggested, "Erm… LARPing?"

Cameron facepalmed. Compa offered only an awkward little smile as she looked back towards the path. "Ah, okay Nep-Nep… whatever you say."

Cameron was about to drop the wooden sword and move on, but then Neptune was in front of him. "Halt, sir! Say your prayers now, or else I will end you!"

"Neptune, we don't have time-" Cameron started to argue.

And that's when Neptune stopped listening and threw a large overhead slash towards Cameron.

The moment he saw it, instinct took over and he raised his own blade to protect him. He grunted as he put force back against Neptune, throwing her back.

Neptune looked genuinely surprised, but soon became even more playful. "So you fight back! Face me, knave!"

The two started doing a mock battle right there. Neptune's movements were precise and accurate, but Cameron wasn't half-bad either. He wasn't exactly the strongest fighter, per say, but he was able to study Neptune pretty closely and was able to find weak points.

"Where did I learn to do this stuff?" Cameron asked, backing off after blocking a particularly hard swing from Neptune. He was about to return the favor with his own flurry of strikes…

Then Cameron suddenly noticed Compa off to the side, casually smiling at the pair.

He sheepishly lowered his stance. "Oh, right… erm, we seem to have forgot about Compa, Neptune…"

Neptune looked to the side too, suddenly reminded of Compa too. "Oohh, right. My bad, Compa."

Compa giggled. "It's fine. Besides, you both looked like you were having fun!"

 _(Hey, don't knock it until you try it. Mock sword-fighting is really fun.)_

After quickly cooling off, Neptune suddenly realized that there was something else in the trash cans: a pair of sword sheaths. She took the one that allowed her to hang her sword on her belt, while Cameron got one that put his sword safely behind his back. It was a bit of a struggle to get it to work, what with his backpack and all, but he managed to do it in a way that didn't look completely dumb and was reasonably comfortable.

As the group kept moving along their way, Cameron nervously kept glancing around, trying to see if people were staring at him. It's not every day you walk around with a sword on your back, after all.

Thankfully, no one gave him or his friends as much as a second glance. The trio soon was well on their way towards the park Compa had found the two amnesiacs in.

As soon as they arrived, Neptune took a deep breath. "So, this is the place where I was elegantly lodged into the ground, huh?"

Cameron looked around. "Not really sure if there _is_ a way to be 'elegantly' lodged into the ground." he replied, before looking a bit confused. "Isn't this supposed to be a park? Where's the people?"

Indeed, the 'park' was completely devoid of people. Despite it being a rather beautiful day, there barely seemed to be any sign of life. Just quiet rustling deeper inside.

"Well… erm, the actual site is a bit further back, but… ah…" Compa explained slowly, shyly twisting in her foot around. "Well, the monsters look like they're here now…"

The moment the words passed by her lips, Cameron noticed movement along the treeline. And then a… thing… passed into the area.

All Cameron could equate the creature too was a slime with a dogs face and ears. Had he NOT been wondering what the hell he was looking at, he might've considered the creature kinda cute.

"Like… that?" Cameron asked, pointing at the strange creature.

"Yes… they showed up a while ago, and now they're just about everywhere… not many people go outside because of that." Compa murmured, looking a tad worried.

"Maybe if we don't bother it, it'll leave us alone?" Cameron offered, slowly walking around the edge of the clearing. The slimy dog creature curiously stared at the tall man, but made no moves towards him.

Neptune seemed to dislike that strategy. "Awww, c'mon! We'll should fight it! We could earn some easy EXP!"

"Forget it, Neptune. We shouldn't fight things that don't fight first." Cameron called out.

It was at this point that, upon turning around back to the path, Cameron noticed two MORE dog creatures that were sliding towards him, and the first one quickly zipped forward and joined in with the other two.

They quickly surrounded him, not attacking, but just staring at him curiously as though they were sizing him up FOR an attack.

"H-hey! Back off!" the tall man shouted, a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Neptune had already drawn her sword. "Can we attack them now?!" she excitedly shouted, not waiting for a response. She quickly targeted the closest of the dog slime creatures to her and slashed as fast as she could.

 _BAM! Critical hit!_

'Wait, what.' Cameron asked himself. 'Are we really TYPING this out like it's an RPG?'

 _(Only for a few visual gags.)_

Compa looked worried as Cameron and Neptune slowly backed up, the Dogoo's now fully aware of the party and starting to slowly approach. "See, I told you!" Neptune called out. "You'll never be a good sidekick to the protagonist if you NEVER fight anything, bud!"

"Hold on, I'm a sidekick now?!" Cameron asked indignantly. "I'm the hero of this story and you know it!"

Compa seemed worried. "Guys… are you sure you both can fight?"

"Of course I can! I'm the heroine, after all!" Neptune smuggly responded. "Besides, I got my skills and my sword (wood), so this shouldn't take that long at all!"

"Not sure… but there's not much of an alternative." Cameron responded, sword out and at the ready for a fight.

Compa still seemed worried, but she steeled her nerves and put on a brave face. "Then, if you're both willing to fight, then so am I! Just need to pull this out…"

From _somewhere,_ Compa pulled out what Cameron could easily say was the largest syringe in his life, even larger than the one back at her house. Seriously, the thing was almost the size OF Compa herself. It was so big there was no way she could hold it without using both hands. Inside the thing was a purple-ish pink liquid that gently sloshed around with every small movement the pink-haired nurse made.

Cameron grew a bit wary of Compa's 'weapon.' "Erm… where were you even keeping that thing…?"

"A good nurse is never without her tools." Compa replied, a smile on her face. "And as to the where… that's a Compa secret! *giggle*"

Even Neptune was weirded out. "My mind can't seem to connect the dots either way… and you do know how cliché it is to wield a giant weapon, right?"

"Oh, that's filler-info! No one wants to know that." Compa denied, holding up her syringe at the ready. "Let's just beat the nasties and move on."

 _(I mean, she's not wrong.)_

Finally, it looked like the Dogoo's had had enough looking and were starting to move for the party. Neptune giddily started to announce, "Oh boy! One battle tutorial, here we-"

"Erm, Neptune? Stories don't come with tutorials or whatever…" Cameron reminded her.

"Oh… right… well then… uh, let's get this first battle of the story out of the way so we can further the plot…! Nah, doesn't have the same ring…"

Cameron only huffed as the Dogoo's quickly closed the remaining distance…

And the first fight began…

...

* * *

 **Yeah, that seems like a good place to leave off on.**

 _(WHAT?! On the VERY FIRST BATTLE of the ENTIRE STORY, you end the chapter THERE?)_

 **Yep.**

 _(WHY?)_

 **Because I can and will. And besides, it's been long enough. This second chapter should've been out a month ago, but I kept holding back due to finals and whatnot. At least the readers will know I haven't forgotten about this story already.**

 _(That still seems like a low blow…)_

 **Oh, believe me, if you think THAT'S a low blow… you're in for one WILD ride, my dear.**

 **Anyway guys, I hope you all enjoyed. I apologize for taking so long to get this out! When I started writing this, finals week at college last year kinda came out of nowhere with, like, twenty different assignments due in a span of about three - four weeks, and I only just managed to stay on top of them all. And then my winter break was also busy because of a new job and the holidays and all that stuff.**

 **But, the good news is: IT'S 2019! YAY!**

 **A brand new year of writing and gaming is ahead of us! And this year, I hope-**

 _(MOAR WRITING, LESS TALKING!)_

 **I'm almost done, shush.**

 **If you guys have any questions for me, please PM me and I'll do my best to answer. And that goes double for Neptune, too. She loves to answer questions!**

 **Until next time, guys, there's only one thing to say…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	3. Discovering the Ultimatum

**...**

 _(*stares*)_

 **Eh… heh heh… heyyyy…**

 _(*sigh*)_

 **Okay, so, this took QUITE a lot longer than I would've liked-**

 _(No kidding! It's been, like, at least two or three MONTHS!)_

 **Yeah, uh… well, y'know… life and stuff…**

…

…

 **Ah, well. No use looking back on that.**

 **Hello hello dear readers! Welcome back to the (heavily belated) third chapter of the story.**

 **Let's not waste more time, shall we?**

* * *

Chapter 3: Discovering the Ultimatum

The three Dogoo's hopped forward towards Neptune, Cameron, and Compa. They each held their weapons firmly at the ready: Neptune with a firm double-handed grip on her wooden sword, Compa with her massive syringe ready to go, and Cameron with a one-handed grip on his own sword.

"Oh boy, here we go…" Cameron sighed. For some reason, this felt rather familiar to him, as if he'd been in this exact situation before…

…

Oh well.

 _(Oh well indeed.)_

"So… how's this work, exactly?" he wondered aloud, nervously shuffling about with his blade at the ready. "We doing it like an actual turn-based thing, or a 'just-spam-moves-until-it-dies-before-it-kills-you' deal?"

"I don't see why we can't try both!" Neptune yelled, charging forward at top speed. She started slashing away at the nearest Dogoo, and actually managed to defeat it as well. "The story can adapt to whatever the author makes it, after all!"

Cameron, taken aback, sighed a bit, and then pulled himself together. "Okay… here goes nothing."

He charged forward and slashed a few times at one of the Dogoo's, not quite managing to defeat it before it hopped away ('Slippery little bastard…' thought Cameron), but quite close.

Fortunately, Compa came in for the assist, and with a few quick jabs of her syringe (and a cute little slap here and there), the small goo monster fell.

Unfortunately, that was the exact moment the remaining Doggo decided to wiggle and then launch itself directly at Cameron, catching and then sticking to his face. The so-called 'hero' started running around in a circle around Neptune and Compa, unheroically shouting something that sounded like, "GEFF UFF MEH! GEFF UFF MEH!"

"Hold still!" Neptune shouted, jumping towards Cameron. The three of them all toppled over, and the Dogoo finally fell off, looking a tad woozy.

"Hiiiii-ya!" Compa yelled, coming from nowhere and jabbing straight down with her syringe. Between the combined force of the tumble it just took and a sharp needle stabbing it to the core, the Dogoo finally fell, disappearing to wherever fallen monsters go to.

Neptune stood up, looking absolutely fine for having just toppled over a guy more than a head taller than her. "Victory!"

"Oww…" Cameron grunted, Neptune standing on top of his back.

Neptune glanced down and immediately jumped off. "Why are you on the ground instead of celebrating! Our first battle! We won!"

Cameron slowly pulled himself off the ground and dusted himself off. "I suppose that's true… but it's a little hard to celebrate when you're being stood on, so…"

"Then get better at not falling on your face! Let's go!" Neptune joyfully shouted, gleefully skipping further ahead.

"W-wait up, Nep-Nep!" Compa called out, pursuing her purple-haired friend.

Cameron sighed. He was both in amazement and full of nerves. Neptune's unyielding optimism was certainly not a BAD thing, per say, but Cameron still felt that it might land them into serious trouble down the road…

Regardless, he followed after, catching up to the pair again as they delved further in.

Monsters were quite plentiful here, and although they weren't very strong ('gotta have that low-level grind fodder for the start,' Cameron thought smugly), they made up for it by being constant nusicences. In addition to the Dogoo's, other strange monsters called this forest home, such as literal walking Tulip flowers, weird little monsters that seemed like boxing robots, and other slime-like creatures.

Even with all of these creatures, Neptune and the gang were perfectly capable to deal with them. Although, there was a fair bit of conflicting interest among the two protagonists: Neptune wanted to run right through, fighting everything that moves, while Cameron prefered to take the slower route, trying to find everything that was hidden. He seemed to have a knack for finding the objects Neptune and even sometimes Compa would flat-out miss. So far he'd already found many an interesting object, which he would then shove into his bag, taking even MORE time.

The conflict of interest didn't affect them too heavily, at least for the moment, but it was slightly irritating when Cameron called everyone back to look at something, or when Neptune charged into battle without giving the others proper time to prepare.

 _(I gave everyone enough time to prepare! If I can be ready in three seconds for a battle, then so can everyone else!)_

Somehow, though, they all managed to keep it together and even get a little stronger along the way.

Compa grew more confused as they delved deeper. "Umm… it should've been around here somewhere…"

"We haven't been here for that long, though." Cameron reasoned. "And, well, it was really dark when you found us, right? Maybe it's just further back than you remember."

"Keep the faith!" Neptune yelled happily, skipping around. She turned a corner, and then…

"Oh… I think I found it." she mumbled, suddenly much more quiet. "That… that is a _really_ big hole."

Cameron and Compa came to Neptune to find…

"Holy _shit_ , that's a big hole _._ " Cameron swore in amazement.

Calling the hole 'big' didn't do it justice. It completely filled in the clearing, going almost twenty, thirty feet down from the surface level. At the very center, at the bottom, two indentations that looked full of loose dirt were present, and Cameron had a sneaking suspicion that that was were he and Neptune were stuck.

"Yes… this was where I found you." Compa replied, relieved to have finally found the place. "Nep-Nep, Cameron… does this place make you remember anything?"

Cameron and Neptune stared at the crater. They were quiet as they gazed intently. "Um… Nep-Nep? Cameron?"

Neptune was quickly growing frustrated, while Cameron was getting upset that he was drawing blanks.

"Grr… I can't remember a thing!" Neptune finally exclaimed, turning towards Compa with a desperate gaze. "Compa, are you SURE I was stuck here?"

"I'm positive." Compa agreed. "You both fell from the sky like shooting stars, and the trails led right here."

"Like shooting stars, eh…?" Cameron responded, kneeling down and looking at the bottom carefully.

"Yessy… ah! That's right!" Compa suddenly shouted.

Neptune blinked in surprise. "Woah, Compa, what's wrong? Why'd you shout?"

"I wasn't paying much attention last night, I was too busy getting you guys to safety. But there might be something around here that can help! An ID or something, or some other personal item." Compa responded, starting to look around the edge of the hole.

Cameron, purely out of instinct, reached for his back pocket. He quickly noticed something. "Hey, Compa, you might be onto something… my wallet isn't here. I _know_ I own one, but it's not here anymore."

Compa grew more excited. "If we can find that, maybe we can get a clue about your memory! What did it look like?"

"Err… like this, I assume?" Neptune asked.

Cameron looked over. Neptune had a black wallet in her hands, and was currently thumbing through it.

"That's… HEY!" Cameron shouted, quickly dashing over and snatching the wallet out of her hands. "Seriously, keep ya hands off my personal stuff."

" _Whaaaat?_ " Neptune asked with a sly grin. "I was just making _sure_ it was yours."

Cameron grunted and opened it up.

He blinked several times before growing confused. "Wait… what?"

The entire thing was empty. No ID, no cash, _nothing._ Not even a library card or some mundane extra item. As far as Cameron could tell… if anything _was_ in this, it wasn't there now.

And yet, Cameron WAS sure it was his. Why?

Because his name was stitched into the inner lining, right behind the clear plastic where an ID card would go. You wouldn't be able to mistake it for someone else's, even without an ID there.

"Neptune, did you take something?!" Cameron angrily accused, pointing a finger at Neptune.

Neptune looked flabbergasted. "Me?! I was just looking through it! That's harmless! I would NEVER take anything!"

 _(I do have a code, you know! I only take things that aren't important to someone! Assuming that someone is good, of course…)_

"Grr…" Cameron grumbled, slamming the wallet shut and jamming it in his back pocket again. "Then there's really nothing in the thing."

"Well, at least you found it. Maybe something fell out of it at some point, and we just need to search." Compa reasoned. She turned her attention to Neptune, asking, "Nep-Nep, what about you? Did you lose something important?"

"I wish I could say yes, but I can't really be sure. Memories on the fritz, you know…" Neptune replied.

And just as suddenly, she snapped her fingers and started looking quite startled. "Wait a minute! I just realized!"

Cameron and Compa had their full attention on Neptune at that point. "Really?! What?" Cameron asked excitedly.

"Isn't it obvious? I just remembered something _verrryyyy_ important that I've lost." Neptune replied.

"Obvious…?" Compa asked, stars in her eyes.

"My memory!" Neptune replied cheerily.

The silence that ensued was so thick that, although cliche, it could be felt. Even the forest around the trio seemed to be quiet at Neptune's absolutely awful joke.

Cameron was the first to break the silence. With a facepalm.

 _(Are we still going to have that as a defining character trait for this guy? Really? Alright, whatever…)_

Compa started looking at Neptune with a sort of sadness. Neptune took a half-step back, her face now showing worry. "Er… wasn't that… funny?"

"Nep-Nep… I don't think this is the right time to be kidding around…" Compa hesitantly responded.

"Wait, what? I thought YOU were joking when you guys asked if I remembered anything!" Neptune explained quickly.

" _*sigh*_ Well, whatever." Cameron interjected. "Let's just look around and see if we can find anything…"

Compa took to scouring the edge of the crater, searching in the loose rubble for anything to help. Neptune started searching the very edge of the clearing, with the thought that if something had been lost from the pair, it may have flown off from the impact. Cameron, meanwhile, slid down to the very center of the crater, and was digging around in the loose dirt at the bottom. He was certain there would be something in there: after all, it was where he and Neptune were stuck, and it is VERY easy to lose something and then have it get lost in dirt, especially in places like this.

For a minute or two, the group searched, but came up with nothing. But just as Neptune and Compa had searched about halfway around the hole each, and Cameron was moving to the second indentation… they heard something.

Cameron was the first to react. He stood up and called out, "Does anyone else hear that?"

Compa and Neptune came to the lip of the crater, and Cameron started climbing out. "I've got a bad feeling…" Neptune murmured, glancing from side to side as the sound slowly grew louder.

"Don't say things like that!" Cameron called out, feeling nerves creep into him as he picked up his pace. "That'll just cause whatever's happening to happen-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before the noise, now identifiable as a deep rumbling of the very ground beneath the trio, started breaking away. Had Cameron not started climbing, he would've already been sent down into who-knows-where.

The color of Cameron's face quickly reached a tint of milk. He started scrambling to get up the hole as fast as possible, the ground very steadily caving in towards him.

"I DIDN'T SIGN UP TO BE PLAYING SPLEEF TODAY!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, almost losing his footing due to the constant rumble.

Compa was already on the ground, hand out, trying to grab Cameron before he slipped in. Neptune was nearby, also ready to grab Cameron.

Cameron just _barely_ managed to get to them, and he lunged for the girls hands just as the ground gave way where his feet had been.

"Shit! Shit!" he swore loudly, accidentally looking down. Wherever the ground was, he couldn't see it: it just opened up to pure darkness down there.

"Hold on bud! We got you!" Neptune grunted, pulling as hard as she could. Even with Compa helping, there was a lot of Cameron to pull up.

They tugged, and Cameron desperately tried to get a foothold, but to no avail. In fact, it almost felt like…

He looked where he was kicking at. There was no ground. Just air. The closest wall was five feet past the lip where Compa and Neptune were laying on.

'This tiny piece of ground… is trying to hold up all three of us at the same time…' he suddenly realized.

And that's when he noticed the ground was cracking again.

"OH FU-"

He didn't even have time to swear before the ground gave way, sending him, Neptune, and Compa tumbling into the abyss.

"We're FALLLLLLLING!" Neptune and Compa shouted in unison, as the trio descended into the depths…

…

 _(Huh. That's… a creative take on how we fell.)_

* * *

Neptune was the first to come to.

She slowly sat up, muttering, "Ouch…" under her breath, and realized that she was now in a cave. Somehow, even after falling what had to have been almost thirty feet, probably more, she felt reasonably fine, if not a tad banged up. Her fall had been cushioned by something soft, which she felt very grateful for.

Then she noticed Compa to her left, appearing passed out but also pretty much unharmed. Neptune quickly started shaking Compa awake, murmuring, "Well, that was something… Compa, wake up! Are you okay?!"

Compa slowly opened her eyes and sat up, dizzy and slightly bruised, but otherwise unhurt. She must've had a soft landing too. "Y-yessy… I think I'm okay…" she replied.

Then they both realized Cameron was nowhere in sight. "You'd think a guy his height would be EASY to spot. Cameron! Where are you?!" Neptune called out.

Compa started whistling, calling out, "Cameron! Where are you? Come on out, Cameron!"

"That makes it sound like he's a dog." Neptune butted in, before calling out again, "Cameron, say something if you can hear us! Anything!"

" _O-oww…_ l-look down, then…" a wheezy, very weak, muffled voice called out.

Neptune and Compa both froze in fear, as they both simultaneously looked down.

Turns out the thing that had cushioned their landing had been Cameron, who was currently face-down on the hard stone floor. His glasses were about a foot in front of him: either they had fallen off when he hit the ground or he tossed them off before hitting the ground. But regardless of that, he looked like he had been rung through the ringer.

"Oh cod!" Neptune swore, her face turning white and she and Compa instantly got off Cameron and rolled him to his back.

"Cameron, are you okay?!" Compa asked, immediately pulling a first-aid kit out of seemingly nowhere.

"C-could _*cough*_ could be better…" he weakly responded, feeling faint…

It took about five minutes of medicine, water, and rigorous application of Band-aids, but eventually Cameron was able to sit up and talk semi-normally, although he _probably_ still had something broken on the inside.

 _(I feel bad about Cameron and all that, but when you think about it, it's kinda good that he did break our fall. I mean, I'd rather have one really injured party member than three moderately injured ones, right?)_

 **(... when you put it like that, it does make some sense… kinda.)**

Once the group was _mostly_ back to normal, they all stood up and looked around. From what they could see, the cave was very, very large, with a river running at the very bottom. Crystals of several vibrant, lovely colors were just about everywhere you looked, and they all gave off a faint glow, illuminating the cave in a shade of blue.

Cameron immediately grew cautious. "Where… are we?" he asked, glancing around.

"It has to be beneath the forest… but I really don't like the way this place feels…" Compa murmured, her legs slightly shaking, be it from nerves or the fall.

"Yeah, I'm getting a _lot_ of mega-bad vibes here… we should probably find an exit…" Neptune responded.

Cameron and Compa agreed, but just as they started looking for one…

"Hey… what's this…?" Cameron suddenly piped up.

He moved for the wall nearby where the trio had crash-landed. Hidden rather well behind a crystal, on a pedestal of some kind of purple metal, sat… something. The best way Cameron could describe the object was a stone rod, about the thickness of a hearty sausage and roughly the size of his hand. It looked almost normal (as far as strange items on pedestals go, at least), but this piece of stone had what looked like blue veins, spider-webbing along the entire thing like cracks, and on either end the rod was chipped, as though it had been broken off of something much larger.

Curious, Cameron plucked the strange curio off the pedestal and showed it to the girls. Compa and Neptune gazed at the rod with curiosity as the tall man allowed the piece to fall into his palm.

Suddenly, the rod started softly glowing. Cameron nearly dropped the piece, but he recovered and watched in fascination. The cracks slowly started growing wider and wider, until suddenly, Cameron was now holding a rod of some kind of pure blue metal, still with chipped ends. Now INCREDIBLY interested, Cameron turned the piece around in his hand. It softly glowed blue, but other than that it seemed unremarkable.

"I've never seen anything like that before…" Compa murmured, slowly touching the fragment.

"Oooh, maybe it's a piece of some kind of medallion or something, and once we fix it we'll turn it into a king for a grand reward!" Neptune reasoned, smiling at her own brilliant idea.

Before anyone could tell her off, however, a loud growl came from somewhere rather close by, which immediately made everyone stand back to back.

"Wh-what was that?! Where did that plot-advancing growl come from?!" Neptune shouted, looking around wildly.

That's when Compa pointed, her face fearful. "Nep-Nep! Cameron! There's a giant monster over there!"

"Wha-?" Cameron shouted, turning.

His eyes widened as he looked at a _giant,_ and that means GIANT, creature. It resembled some kind of half man, half spider creature, sorta like a spider-centaur type deal or something like that, and it looked heavily armored. It's sword was in it's right hand, and was easily two or three times the size of Cameron.

And before anyone present could properly react, the thing charged with surprising speed and grabbed Compa with it's free hand, quickly making her unable to move.

"Ahhh! N-Nep-Nep! Cameron! Please, help me!" Compa screamed.

Neptune started panicking, shouting, "Oh no! Compa's getting *censored* and *censored* by that thing!"

"Not the right time, Neptune!" Cameron yelled angrily, pulling out his sword. But he knew well enough that his wooden blade would do very little, if anything, towards… whatever THIS thing was.

"Oh relax, just trying to do some fan service." Neptune responded, pulling out her own sword. "Well, perhaps it's time I get a little more serious, then."

She started running full tilt at the monster, who at the moment was being distracted by trying to keep Compa from squirming out of it's grasp.

"Don't worry! I'll save you Compa!" Neptune shouted, sword at the ready. "Taaaaake THIS!"

For some reason, Cameron swore he heard words that sounded like, ' _Neptune's Attack.'_

She slashed her sword across the monster. _*Bam! Bam bam!*_

' _No effect.'_

"What the…?!" Neptune started to say, before pausing. "Wait, hang on… who commentated on my attack?"

" _I am sorry. I did not wish to surprise you, but I could not stop myself,"_ a very familiar voice announced.

"Wait… that voice sounds familiar… have we met?" Neptune asked aloud. Cameron would've probably told her off at this point, but it was clear by the expression on his face that he heard the voice as well.

" _It is me, Histoire. I thought I explained this to you and Cameron in your dreams, Neptune…"_ Histoire casually remarked.

"Wait… Histoire? So that dream WAS real?" Cameron asked, very confused. Seems like he DID have some kind of linked dream with Neptune.

Compa was still doing her best to struggle out, but it wasn't working quite well. "Nep-Nep? A little help up here, pretty please?" Compa asked, sounding surprisingly nonchalant about the whole deal.

"Ah, Compa!" Neptune shouted, surprised. "Err, Miss Heavenly Voice? Can you please help Compa? My strikes are doing zip!"

" _I cannot, but you can, Neptune. If you activate your Hard-Drive Divinity, you should be fine,"_ Histoire replied.

"Hard-Drive what?" Cameron responded, looking rather confused.

Neptune apparently felt the same. "Err… I kinda lost my memory, so… do you mind taking it step-by-step for me, pretty please?"

" _Oh… so that was why our last talk went every which way, then…"_ Histoire mused.

"Um, if I use that Hard-Drive Thingy, it should help me save Compa, right?" Neptune asked hesitantly.

" _It should, but…"_ Histoire gently started, sounding unsure. " _Now I'm not sure if you can actually access your Hard-Drive Divinity…"_

"Oh, I'll be able to do it!" Neptune replied indignantly. "I'm Neptune! I go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!"

 _(Words to live by, amiright!)_

Cameron couldn't hold back a very audible snort at those words, but Neptune didn't seem to notice. "So… please help me! I want to save my friend!" the purple-haired girl pleaded, her voice suddenly surging with strength.

Histoire's voice hesitated for a few seconds before finally speaking up, and she sounded serious this time, " _...I will force run Hard-Drive Divinity from you. Are you ready?"_

Neptune backed up, her face full of steely determination. "Born ready!"

Histoire began to chant, but it didn't make any sense to Cameron. As far as he could figure, she was suddenly speaking in another language.

Then, suddenly, Neptune's form was starting to shine. Histoire suddenly switched back to English, and Cameron heard her plead, " _Neptune, may your power arise…"_

The light shining from Neptune suddenly grew brighter. A great big column of light rose from the ground at her feet, completely encasing her. What looked like purple lines of pure data were either rising with the pillar, entering said pillar, or otherwise exiting it…

Cameron had to shield his eyes using his offhand, unsure of what was going on. "What the hell-"

And then the light faded away in a bright flash.

And the figure in the light was revealed.

 _(Hard to think that the last story actually ended it's chapter here, huh? Oh well. Now, you better go about describing me good, Author!)_

Cameron's immediate impression was of a Neptune that had suddenly matured several years. Neptune's hair was now much, much longer, so much so that she actually had braided twin tails, the hair that framed her face was much longer as well, and it even appeared a shade darker than before. She had also grown quite a fair bit, both in height and body type (yeah, Cameron WOULD notice Neptune's improved 'assets', wouldn't he?). Her clothes were different too: instead of a purple hoodie and skirt, it was now a skintight leotard with purple and silver detailing. Her shoes had transformed into boots and some kind of leg armor that rose well past the knee. And as she looked at all of these new changes to herself, Cameron noticed her purple eyes were now a bright, piercing blue.

 _(... I approve of this description. Good job.)_

 **(Sucking up to me isn't going to get another pudding out of me, Neptune.)**

"W-woah…" Cameron murmured, taken aback by Neptune's sudden transformation.

"Nep-Nep, you're glowing!" Compa called out. Even the monster restraining her seemed to have been distracted by this new Neptune.

Neptune looked down at her hand, seeing that she was indeed glowing slightly. She felt… stronger. Powerful.

Unstoppable.

"Is this… me…?" she asked. Her voice had changed. Now it was deeper, much more mature.

" _Y-yes…"_ Histoire responded, and Cameron couldn't fail to notice that her voice was much more strained, as though the transformation had taken a lot out of her. " _This is your true form, Neptune."_

Neptune glanced at her hand once more, and it curled into a fist. "This power… it's coursing through me… there's no way I can possibly lose with this!"

She drew her sword, which had somehow grown as well, now being almost the same size as this new Neptune and made of metal. "Don't worry, Compa! I'll save you!"

And she charged, leaving a very dumbfounded Cameron behind. "I don't… how am I supposed to respond to that…?"

Fortunately, he didn't have to. The sounds of Neptune striking the monster were enough to jar him back to reality. He chased after, hearing Compa's shrieks...

* * *

The battle was pitifully short. Try as it might, the monster couldn't hope to do much damage towards this powerful new Neptune.

As she delivered the final strike, the monster cried out in agony. It finally released Compa, but Cameron had already anticipated that and was ready to catch her.

And the monster collapsed as Neptune stood there, sheathing her sword and looking quite pleased with herself. "Well, that should do it."

Compa leaped out of Cameron's arms and gave Neptune a great big hug. "Nep-Nep, that was super! You were amazing! You beat the nasty like it was nothing!"

"That was… something." Cameron responded, regarding this new Neptune like he was seeing her for the first time.

Suddenly, in a bright flash, the grown version of Neptune was transformed back into her normal form. She looked rather winded, but still managed to smile as she panted, "Whew… I'm beat…"

" _Well done, Neptune. And are you okay, Compa?"_ Histoire asked.

"Yessy! Nep-Nep saved me, so I'm all okay now!" Compa responded happily, but it didn't take long for her face to become rather confused: she had just spoken to a voice that had no visible owner. "Erm, wait… Nep-Nep, Cameron? Who is this voice and where is it coming from?"

Neptune immediately responded, "It's Miss Heavenly Voice, AKA Miss Histoir… what was your name again?"

" _Histoire. You were only off by one letter…"_ Histoire murmured.

"And not only that, but the SILENT letter, too. I mean, that literally doesn't make audible sense?" Cameron asked.

"Ahh, right! Histy-Histy!" Neptune responded. Leave it to her to come up with the simpler nicknames.

Apparently Histoire actually didn't mind the nickname, as she spoke again, " _You can call me Histy. Now, Compa, I am Histoire. It is nice to meet you."_

"Can I call you Histy too? It's nice to meet… erm, I mean _hear_ you." Compa asked.

Just then, a flicker of movement behind the two girls caught Cameron's eye. "Uhh, girls…?"

And before anyone else could say anything, the monster that had remained still for so long suddenly let out a deep roar, and was slowly getting up once more.

"IT'S ALIIIIIVE!" the two girls shouted, holding each other in fear.

" _ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE!_ " Cameron shouted, grabbing each of the girls by their hands and sprinting away at top speed. He honestly didn't care if WHERE they ended up, so long as they put as much distance between them and the monster as possible…

* * *

The trio didn't stop running until they burst through the door of Compa's home. All three of them were caked in sweat, and each was nursing some sore part of their body: Neptune was rubbing a stitch in her side while leaning heavily against the wall, Compa was collapsed into a chair and started massaging her poor feet, and Cameron… well, his injuries from falling and then having two people land directly on top of him hadn't exactly made the run any easier, and he could barely breathe while clutching his sides, lying faceup on the cot.

"At… *pant* at least… we *pant*... managed to lose it…" Neptune breathed, barely able to stand.

Compa looked very shaken up, and her aching feet weren't helping. "We got really lucky…"

Cameron really couldn't offer much more than a feeble groan of agreeance from the cot.

" _I still cannot believe it was still around, even after such a lashing…"_ Histoire mused.

"Oh, Histy is still here?" Neptune asked, finally catching her breath, although she still sounded a bit sore. "How are you talking to us, now that I think about it? Why couldn't you have done so before?"

" _Simple: the fragment you found allows me to communicate with you."_ Histoire responded.

Cameron finally sat back up and fished around in his pocket. He pulled the small metal piece out of his pocket, staring at it rather dubiously. "This… this thing? How does… that even work?"

" _That is a Key Fragment. It is a piece that will release me from my seal. Now that it's in your possession, I can communicate through it… though not for very long."_ Histoire explained.

"Wait, seal? You're sealed away?" Neptune asked.

" _Yes, and… well, I see no reason to beat around the bush. I need to ask you to help release me. One Fragment is located in each Land, but even I don't know where…"_

Cameron couldn't help but notice that, with the last sentence, she had sounded… rather desperate. She needed them.

"I mean… I'm all for helping, but… won't I have to fight a ton of monsters?" Neptune asked, and for the first time she looked rather concerned about that. Before the thought would have never even crossed her mind. But with how they could barely handle the giant bug-man thing… it was giving her second thoughts.

 _(Hey, that's a reasonable thing to think, isn't it? I'm all for helping, but not if it is going to be near-impossible.)_

Histoire hesitated, then continued on, " _Yes. I won't pretend that your life will be in danger while doing so. But… should you manage to free me, I can help you in turn. Your memory, for instance. I can restore it, Neptune."_

Neptune's expression suddenly grew excited. "Really?!"

"And mine?" Cameron asked, hopeful.

Histoire hesitated again. " _...I think so… maybe."_

Although he didn't like how hesitant Histoire had sounded, it was still the best news he had heard all day. Now they had a goal. That was much better than blindly guessing where to go.

" _Besides, I really do need Neptune to have her memory back."_ Histoire continued.

"That settles it! Good ol' Neptune will search far and wide for those fragments, just you wait!" Neptune excitedly shouted, just as thrilled by the possibility of getting her memory back.

Compa stood up too, and she seemed confident as well. "I want to help, too. It wouldn't be right to stand by with Cameron and Nep-Nep's brain loss."

"'Amnesia,' Compa. Not brain loss. Two very different things." Cameron corrected. "But, I thought you had nursing school? Won't it be a problem if you don't go there?"

"Not a problem. It's closed due to the monsters, so I have time." Compa replied.

" _Thank you…"_ Histoire thanked, her voice suddenly much softer. " _Thank you… ve… ry… mu… ch…"_

Neptune was straining to hear. "What was that? I think the static is starting to catch up to you, Histy!"

" _I… using… Fragment… time… up…"_ Histoire's voice came, softer still and only getting weaker. " _Please… look… Key… Frag…"_

And then it was cut entirely. Cameron tried gently shaking the piece in his hand, perhaps hoping to get a little bit more out of Histoire, but no such luck. "I think she's gone, at least for now."

"But now we know what to do!" Neptune responded, suddenly looking restored and raring to go.

"Yessy! We should get going now!" Compa responded, starting to move for the door.

"Hold it!" Cameron yelled.

The two girls looked at him as he got to his feet. "Look, I'm all about getting going myself, but… we're tired, it's late, and I heavily doubt we could outrun another monster a SECOND time. We should wait a little. Rest up and get ready to go tomorrow."

The other two glanced at each other, but they did agree with Cameron's logic. They all agreed then to settle in for the night, recharge, and then get going first thing when they woke up.

"After breakfast, of course." Cameron chuckled.

 _(I certainly hope that breakfast was implied! You can't fight evil on an empty stomach, after all!)_

The sun slowly continued to set off in the distance. It touched the horizon, continuing it's slow slog towards nighttime.

All well and good, except now Cameron was starting to doubt his own thoughts about saying behind. Sure, it made sense BEFORE, while he was tired and sweaty and whatnot, but now that he was reasonably back in order (amazing what a hot shower can cure), he was starting to think maybe it hadn't been the best idea to wait.

Sighing, he resigned to the fact that it was much too late now: no point in it but to just be ready to go again tomorrow.

Deciding that he should use the downtime while he had some, he moved to the kitchen and laid his bag on the small counter. The canvas bag wasn't much itself, being just a simple gray with a multitude of zippers and compartments.

However, he started to dig around inside of it. He hadn't paid much attention to it beforehand, but it was clear that there were other items inside that had been there before the party's excursion.

At least half a dozen books, well worn by the looks of things, were tucked carefully into a side compartment. On the other side, there was a small collection of what appeared like hotel toiletries and a single unused toothbrush. In the frontmost compartment, there were a few empty, crumpled bags that must've contained snacks of some kind. And in the main pocket, there were several electronic devices and chargers, which Cameron took a keen interest in.

He pulled out the largest object, a rather large, somewhat bulky laptop, likely an older model of some kind. What was curious about it, though, was that there was a small, bullet-sized hole right in the center. It passed through the entire laptop (both the screen and the base) and out the backside, and yet as far as he could see on his backpack, there was no similar hole in the fabric.

He attempted (knowing very well there was no chance of it working) to turn on the laptop, and unsurprisingly, the laptop didn't even attempt to run. Setting the broken device off to the side, he felt around in his backpack one last time.

It was empty, completely empty. Although he was a bit upset that his backpack hadn't had anything immediately useful, he nevertheless shook that off and started picking through the rest of the items he had found.

He started poking around with some of the other electronics he pulled out, such as a rectangular, thin box with a screen on the front. Cameron suddenly realized that he was looking at a phone. HIS phone.

Eagerly, he attempted to turn on the device. The screen lit up, and as he stared at it the screen showed a lock, which quickly unlocked.

He swiped up, and everything was open to him. He quickly noticed a bunch of little red circles with numbers inside them next to several of the square icons.

He selected the first one he saw, which was a blue icon with an envelope on it, labeled 'Email'.

The screen was now listed with a ton of emails that he had recently received: fifteen, to be exact. He attempted to select one.

And then the screen went black.

 _(Ruh-roh.)_

Startled, he tried to turn the phone back on, but was only met with a faint picture of a blinking battery. Out of power.

Groaning gently, Cameron searched through his bag once again and the stuff he had scattered about, hoping that the charger might be among his things.

He found one that looked likely, but there was a problem: the end of it was rather frayed and bent, showing off a lot of exposed wiring. Cameron eyed the cord nervously. He was desperate, but maybe not THAT desperate yet. He'd find another charger, or a way to fix the one he had.

He set those things aside and would've continued to rummage around, but he was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Neptune.

"Whatcha doing?" Neptune asked, leaning in front of Cameron's face.

"GAH!" Cameron yelled, so absorbed in thought he hadn't heard Neptune until she was literally in his face. "Neptune! Personal space!"

"Can you blame me? I was practically shouting your name just a minute ago, and you hadn't heard me." Neptune responded, sitting opposite Cameron with a rather keen interest in the stuff in front of her.

"Well, next time just, like, tap my shoulder or something…" Cameron breathed. "What do you want?"

"Why do you even have this stuff?" the purple-haired girl asked, staring through the hole in Cameron's laptop.

"Wish I knew…" Cameron murmured. "Half the stuff is just random junk, and the other half is electronics that are dead or broken… I still feel like something's off, though…"

"What, like you've missed something?" Neptune asked, picking through the books in the stack.

"Exactly." Cameron agreed. "There's something that I just can't pin…"

Neptune was still rifling through the many books that Cameron had pulled out. "Why do you have so many books, anyway? It's not like you could read all of these in one day, after all…" she asked.

She found yet another, identical-looking book, with a glossy title on the cover. It read, "The Art of Making Money". She almost put it aside, but something about the cover made her pause.

"Hey… there's no author or anything on this book." she realized, showing Cameron. Indeed, apart from the glossy title words, there was nothing else on the book cover. No author name, no publishing company, not even one of those '#1 Bestseller' labels on the top. In fact, now that Neptune had pointed it out, it was hard to NOT notice.

 _(Small details NEVER go over the mighty Nep-Nep's head!)_

"Huh… odd." Cameron agreed, taking the book and attempting to open it.

It… wouldn't budge.

"Uhh… *grunt*... i-it… it won't open…" he managed, struggling to pry the pages apart.

"Lemme see that…" Neptune demanded, swiping the book from Cameron and pulling on each side of the book. Still nothing.

Not willing to give up that easily, Neptune carefully looked around the entire book, feeling around.

"A- _ha!_ Look at this!" Neptune suddenly shouted gleefully, showing Cameron the spine of the book. The title of the book was printed again on the side, and Cameron noticed, Neptune was pointing at the word, 'Money'. In the center of the 'o', just barely visible, was a small dot that looked like it was meant to be part of the title.

"Uh… I don't follow." Cameron responded honestly.

"Look at the cover. There's no dot there, is there?" Neptune explained.

Cameron glanced over. Now that she mentioned it, the 'o' on the front cover didn't have the dot.

"You don't think… some kind of hidden switch?" Cameron asked, taking the book from Neptune again.

"Push it and see!" Neptune replied, bouncing in place in excitement.

Cameron reached over and gave the small dot on the spine a push.

 _*Click!*_

A soft clicking noise sounded, and the top cover of the book suddenly popped up a little bit.

Growing excited, Cameron opened it up.

His eyes grew wide. "No way…! It's a fake book!"

"Fake book?" Neptune asked.

"It's a book that, normally, looks like any old book on a shelf, but when you actually open it, it has a hole in it that you can store things inside." Cameron explained, reaching into the hole in question.

"Well?! What's inside?" Neptune asked.

Cameron first pulled out a small, white charger cord. He immediately recognized it as a charger, and judging from the small plug on the end, he guessed it was a spare for his phone. "Soon as we get done here, I'm plugging that in…" Cameron intoned, setting the charger off to the side.

Then he pulled out a small baggie partly-filled with what Cameron guessed were coins of some kind. However, unlike the credits that he and the other two had found while out adventuring, these coins looked nothing like them. Some were brown, but the rest were all a shiny silver color, with what looked like something engraved on each side.

"Huh… weird…" Cameron mused, setting the bag aside.

There was only one other thing in the false book, that being a small piece of paper, folded several times. Once he was sure there was nothing else in the book, Cameron started unfolding the paper to see what was on it.

Neptune had been looking at the bag of coins Cameron pulled out, but gave him some more attention when he finished unfolding the paper. "Well? What's on it?"

Cameron didn't respond, but instead wore an expression of confusion and flipped the paper around to show Neptune what was one it.

" _Do not forget about him… the snake."_

Above those words was a crude picture of a suit, much like you might see on a professional businessman. The only thing was that this suit, rather than the usual colors you might expect, was a vivid shade of purple.

 _(The plot, it thickens… yes…)_

"Huh… strange…" Neptune mused.

"Yeah, a lot of this is strange…" Cameron agreed, taking a closer look at the bag of coins.

He attempted to reach in and grab a handful, but the moment his finger touched the first coin, the coins (and the bag they were in) all of a sudden vanished into thin air.

"What the-?!" Cameron shouted, before he suddenly heard the sound of a cash register chiming coming from his pocket. The same pocket that he had previously stored the credits the group had found from their journey.

Cameron quickly opened that pocket, and suddenly found credits that DEFINITELY hadn't been there before. He'd already sorted the rest into a separate pile off to the side.

Cameron and Neptune glanced at each other, unsure of what to say to such a situation. Neptune offered a shrug. "I… guess you found a bag of money."

"..." Cameron remained silent.

The two didn't really say much after that. The unpacking of the bag had clearly left more questions than it answered, and Cameron was starting to feel a strange sense of… foreboding.

'All of these things, and none of them have even given me a HINT of what my old life was…' he mused to himself. 'What I would give to even have a clue…'

Clearly, some of his thoughts must've shown on his face, cause Neptune gave an honest attempt to cheer up the tall man. "Aww, c'mon bud! It's not that bad! I mean, sure, this didn't go exactly as you thought it would, and that whole thing with the coins was kinda odd, and, well, the whole secret book thing was a bit of a letdown, but don't let it get to ya!"

Cameron gave her a look. "Yeah, I feel _sooo_ much better now…" he murmured sarcastically.

Neptune sighed. "But look on the bright side! At least we still have an established goal! And, hey, you've got yourself an adorable protagonist to help you through it all."

"Hey, hold up a tick, I'm the protagonist here." Cameron interrupted.

"Either way, I'm here to help! Leave it to ole' Neptune to fix you up and save the day!"

Cameron stared at her for a moment. "How… do you do that?"

"Eh?" Neptune sounded.

"How can you remain… so chipper? I mean, you're in the exact same situation as me, with no memory or anything." Cameron asked.

Neptune considered her answer. She _wanted_ to say that she just was, but she had a feeling Cameron would find that answer cheap. So, she instead replied:

"Well… I see it like a blank slate, of sorts. Whatever we used to be, however good or bad that was… technically, it's gone. It never existed as far as we know. So, I see this as a second chance at life. Who knows? I may end up exactly the same as I was, or maybe I actually was completely different. But either way, that's behind me for now. Until I get those memories back, I don't see a reason to really stress about them too much."

Cameron had wide eyes. "W-wow… that was… surprisingly profound, Neptune…"

 _(Well, we all have our moments, no?)_

Neptune was obviously proud of that comment, but she at least attempted to mask it, but she couldn't suppress a light giggle.

The pair soon finished repacking Cameron's bag, with Cameron finally having everything sorted into a system that made it so that he could reach in and pull out whatever he needed or wanted in less than five seconds.

Once he was finally satisfied about how everything was sorted, he leaned back into the couch. It had gotten pretty late at this point.

He could only hope that, whatever they went to do tomorrow, things would go better than they had today…

And they would, surely…

Right?

* * *

 **DEAR LORD FINALLY I GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE.**

 _(WOAH! Calm down a bit, dude!)_

 **S-sorry. Just, you know how irritating it is when you are at that awkward point where you are ALMOST done, but just can't seem to find a way to wrap up everything nicely?**

 **That's what I've been feeling.**

 **For months.**

 **I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to say.**

 **I, er… just wasn't sure HOW I wanted to say it, if that makes sense.**

 _(Hmm…. I guess…)_

 **But holy hell, I am SO glad I got this done. I swear, I've read this entire thing over at LEAST twenty times now, so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes at this point, I'd be surprised.**

 **(Watch, there'll be, like, twenty of them and I'll only notice them after the upload actually hits.)**

 **Either way!**

 **I do hope you readers enjoyed this chapter! I am, of course, SO sorry it took so long, but you know, life has just been kicking me in the ass with a steel-toed shoe lately.**

 **HOPEFULLY, I'll manage to get some second wind out of this, but at this point I can't make any promises.**

 **But, mark my words, I'll keep you guys informed!**

 **This is ButterHunter, signing off, and until next time guys…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	4. UPDATE: Somewhat Important Announcement

**Well, hello again.**

 **So… I've been sitting on this for a while, and… well, I guess now is as good as any of a time to make this more public knowledge.**

 **For a few of you, this probably will not be news, since this has been an ongoing thing happening over on the Butter Army Discord server for at least a while now (link is on the profile, just in case).**

 **But, for those of you that aren't on there for any such reason…**

 **Well, something has happened while there. We encountered someone who, at first glance, was only trying his damndest to troll and confuse us.**

 **But, recently, he has shown his true colors. And now, we are… well, I guess sort of in a partnership with each other.**

 **Okay, I'll stop beating around the bush here.**

 **You see, this 'troll' that we've been experiencing…**

 **Was actually a 'darker' side of me. A darker side of the author you all have known for years now.**

 **His name is (creatively)... Noremac. AKA, the 'ButterStalker'.**

 **He has his own story currently on FanFiciton as if right now, but unlike mine, which are relatively tame and fun (at least in my opinion)...**

 **His stories are… well, by comparison, a tad more on the extreme end of the NSFW scale.**

 **He proudly boasts that his stories are much more meant for the more mature audiences, and it's clear to see why: in the one story he's written, he's somehow managed to cram an 18+ scene into all of the now three chapters he's written.**

 **Now, if this were just a simple thing of me praising an author, I'd probably put their name on my profile as a good writer I'd recommend going to.**

 **However… things are not that simple. Since, as his request…**

 **He's using my OC. Specifically, my MAIN OC that I use for… pretty much all my stories.**

 **He's taken my OC and has molded it into his own story, for reasons that he says 'are much easier than typing out my own strange name.'**

 **And, plus, he WAS a darker side of me. It only makes sense that he would find some kind of inspiration in my own work.**

 **Yeah, well anyway…**

 **I guess it should be obvious by now, but I'll elaborate: this is basically a second account that I'm using as a way to write more… hardcore stories that, in my mind, didn't fit on my original account, since these stories have much stronger themes than my normal ones.**

 **I'm basically treating this as a separate ButterHunter: one who is the same in a lot of aspects, but also different: not afraid to say his mind, not afraid to get raunchy if need be, but is also a bit rough around the edges. The darker version of myself.**

 **However, the OC is still the same as my own stories, meaning that, essentially, it's a new way for me to write stories that wouldn't otherwise fit into my current mold.**

 **So yeah. That's my announcement. I've gone into a 'partnership' with my darker side, and in exchange for borrowing my OC, he writes stories of his own design.**

 **However, A word of caution: he is VERY explicit that his stories are NOT safe for work, especially at certain scenes. It involves a lot of characters knocking boots, if you catch my drift, as well as other hardcore themes that I'm sure he'll go into as the story/stories he makes progresses.**

 **But as long as you can handle it, then you can find him pretty easily. I'll have added him to my wall of authors by the time this goes up, so hopefully if you do want to see the new works, then you can be my guest.**

 **Just thought I'd get this out there, just in case, since many of you guys probably aren't on the Discord, after all.**

 **Sorry again for the lack of chapters, life has been hitting me a little hard lately, and I'm still trying to recover. Life's been hitting ALL of us a little hard, honestly, but that's besides the point.**

 **This is ButterHunter, and I WILL eventually get more chapters out. Until then, my dear readers, I hope that all of you…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


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